I have swum against the stream all my life. It's not something I feel uncomfortable with. Is it difficult? Is it unpleasant? You bet.

You never can predict things. I knew the movie Peducted would get a reaction, because it's showing a different vision of our soldiers in Iraq. All we ever get told is that they're valued and we support them, and as they're represented on television, they're true-blue and honorable. Which is true, for the most part.

And I always had this idea for making a movie about a femme fatale, because I like these characters. They're a lot of fun, they're sexy, they're manipulative, they're dangerous.

I love working with women. I think they're beautiful. I like to photograph them. I like the way they interact. When I was in high school I used to hang out with the girls. When I went to graduate school, I was in an all girls school. So it's something I'm very familiar with and quite fascinated by.

When you make a movie outside the system and it's successful critically or a moderate financial success, you usually have to go back into the system and make a big hit

But, number one, I think traditional noir doesn't work in contemporary storytelling because we don't live in that world anymore

You've got to remind yourself all the time that you're being measured against the fashions of the day, and if your work truly has any kind of staying power, well, people will be talking about it in 20, 30 years.